Monthly Archives: April 2010

Sound bars are getting cheaper and cheaper and today Sony announced two new ’3D capable’ devices, the Sony HT-CT350 ($400) and the HT-CT150 ($300). I would say that you should get a good demo before you go and buy any of these as these ‘true 3D experiences’ can sound really bad. Sony also unveiled a new 5.1 channel HT-SF470 home theater system that can be yours for $550. More information and pics inside.

If you got $17,500 to spare you can enjoy printing 3D objects with the brand new HP Designjet 3D printer that will be launched within the next couple of weeks. I think that this is a very cool thing and hopefully the prices will be consumer friendly in 10 years or so.

The Designjet 3D is based on Stratasys’s Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology, which turns three-dimensional CAD drawings into tangible prototypes by extruding partially molten ABS plastic in extremely fine layers one atop the other, forming the entire 3-D model in a single piece from the ground up. Designjet 3D will print in ivory-colored plastic only while Designjet Color 3D will print single-color parts in up to eight different colors (we’re not sure why you can’t just put a different hue of ABS plastic in the Designjet 3D).

Due to the ash cloud problems in Europe, Lonely Planet has decided to provide a bunch of their guides for free. Just do a search for ‘Lonely Planet’ in your i*-device and you can get some guides for free during a limited time.

Apparently some random guy found this iPhone prototype in a San Francisco bar, and gave or sold it to Gizmodo. It’s the real deal, but since it’s a prototyp the final design might look like something completely different. Anyway, it’s a real interesting story.

What’s new
• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×640 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic

I just stumbled across this cool wine rack that looks just like the input / output connectors from the back of an amp or a TV. The rack is designed by two young Italians, L.Bregoli and M.Fanelli, under the brand ‘Rocket’. Nice rack with a high gadget geek factor. It can be yours for around $200.

Today Apple approved and launched the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch web browser Opera Mini in the app store – which actually surprised me a bit since it’s a product that goes head on with the built-in Safari browser. After a quick test I must say that the first version disappoints me. It feels a bit sluggish (not loading time, but the scrolling and zooming part). It’s not that intuitive as the Safari browser. The biggest advantage I have noticed so far is that it’s easier to open pages and links in new tabs, and that Opera can store login information. Regardless, it’s nice to see some competition to Apple’s built-in products and Opera will most probably get better in future versions